Is carrying a credit card balance actually a good idea to try to improve your credit rating? - That’s Rich! Today 6:37 AM Facebook Share CLEVELAND, Ohio - If you’ve been intentionally carrying a balance on your credit cards with hope of improving your credit score, you just may be making an expensive decision without getting any closer to your goal. Count the balance-carry strategy as a giant myth, says Howard Dvorkin, chairman of the personal finance website debt.com. “There are so many myths out there. And people invent new ones,” Dvorkin said during a recent telephone interview. “The No. 1 myth is the stupidest myth: ‘I should carry a balance on my credit cards so it shows activity.’ That is not going to help you. That is an expensive, expensive way to try to improve your credit. It just doesn’t have any impact on it.